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Indicator: Housing AND Transportation Costs as a Percentage of Budget

Data and Data Discussion provided by Sustainable Seattle

Housing and Transportation Costs as a Percentage of Household Budget, Seattle Metropolitan Area

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Upstream Indicators
Ratio of Housing Units to Population --- Between 2000 and 2007, the region experienced a small reduction in average household size, decreasing from 2.494 in 2000 to 2.491 in 2007. (view data graph) Median House Size of New Construction --- Median house size of new construction has increased over the past decade with consequence for climate change, resource consumption and housing affordability. (view data graph) Public Dollars Spent for Low Income Housing --- Public dollars spent for low income housing in King County has pursued a see-saw path over the last 10 years. (view data graph) Ratio of Jobs to Housing --- Despite small changes in the jobs-to-housing ratio in each of the four counties, there has been relatively little change in the jobs-to-housing ratio in the region over the last 14 years. (view data graph) Walkability Index --- In 2005, King County finished a major study called “Land Use, Transportation, Air Quality and Health” (which led to the current program HealthScape), that measured how specific land use and transportation actions affect air quality, mobility, congestion, and public health. No trend data are yet available. (view data graph)
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Downstream Indicators
Acres in Forest and Farm Land --- King County has maintained its forest and farmland with very little change in total acreages since 1995. (view data graph) Average Commute Time --- Since 1980, commute times for King County has trended upward. (view data graph) Estimated Number and Percent of Homeless Persons --- From 2000 to 2004, the number of homeless increased nearly 30% to 6,852. On the one night count for 2008, that number had risen to 8,439, an 8% increase over 2007 figures. (Survey methods were changed in 2006.) Of these, nearly one third, including children, were sleeping outside in below freezing weather, an increase of 15% over the previous year. (1) The current emergency system and transitional housing system has approximately 6,700 beds. (2) (view data graph) Physical and Mental Health Restrictions --- There has been an increase in the percentage of King County adults with 3 or more restricted activity days from 1993 to 2004. This local increase corresponds to worsening trends nationally. (view data graph)
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Related Goals
The existence of affordable housing options and access to transportation alternatives in the areas where people live and work will help to ensure that everyone can effectively balance their income against their living costs as well as increase the environmental sustainability of a community.
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Sustainability Snapshot:

Working families (defined as households with incomes between $20,000 and $50,000) face a basic trade-off between saving on housing and paying more for transportation. In order to find more affordable housing, they often have to consider living in suburban or rural areas where car dependency and commuting costs quickly rise. Combined, the costs of housing and transportation, the two largest expenses in most working families’ budgets, account for 57% nationally and 61% in the Seattle area. (1) Nationally, according to 2003 Bureau of Labor Statistics, for every dollar a working family saves on housing, it spends 77 cents more on increased transportation costs.

Sustainability Trend:

There is no on-going reporting for this indicator broken down for King County or the Central Puget Sound, though there are multiple data sources showing that the costs of transportation and housing are going up in the region. Recent hikes in gas prices indicate that these costs will continue to escalate.

Data Discussion

The Indicator Defined
Percent of annual household income spent on housing and transportation costs. Working families are households with annual incomes between $20,000 and $50,000. Housing costs include mortgage payments, operating costs and utilities for homeowners and contract rent and utilities for renters; transportation costs include the cost of owning and operating a vehicle and the cost of public transit.

Data Interpretation/Evaluation
Multiple data sources indicate that the costs of transportation and housing are going up in the Seattle metropolitan area and are higher generally in this region than in most other areas of the US. The Center for Housing Policy reported in 2006 that working families in the Seattle metropolitan area, compared to 28 metropolitan areas, spent a combined 61% of their household budget on housing and transportation costs, which tied Seattle with Atlanta for the second highest combined percentage in the country behind San Francisco at 63%. (1) The respective split between housing and transportation for working families in Seattle was 31% and 30%. Based on 2002-2003 Consumer Expenditure survey data, the Center for Neighborhood Technology found that 52.9% of income was spent by all households on housing and transportation costs, on average, in the Seattle Metropolitan area for a rank of 12th nationally.(2) The accompanying graph indicates that the burden was the same as in 2000 but an increase from 43% in 1990.(3) The higher burdens for working families as compared to all families are due to the need for working families to locate at a distance from their work in order to afford housing, dramatically increasing their transportation costs and commute times.

Data Source and Limitations
Data for this indicator was compiled by Sustainable Seattle from reports by the Center for Neighborhood Technology and the Center for Housing Policy. The source of the graph data is the Center for Neighborhood Technology's report, Housing and Transportation Cost Trade-offs and Burdens of Working Families in 28 Metros (2006). The primary data source is the 2000 Consumer Expenditure Survey of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The survey is national in scope but breaks down the results by a number of Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Areas, including the Seattle metropolitan area (Seattle-Bellevue-Tacoma). For complete information about the Consumer Expenditure Survey, please visit the BLS website at http://www.bls.gov/cex/#overview.

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Additional Resources

(2) Driven to Spend: Pumping Dollars Out of Our Households and Communities, 2005
This report by the Center for Neighborhood Technology documents the average combined share for housing and transportation spending as a percentage of household spending for 28 major U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas, including Seattle.

(1) A Heavy Load: The Combined Housing and Transportation Burdens of Working Families, 2006
This Center for Housing Policy report analyzes the interrelated impacts of rising transportation and housing costs on working families.

(3) Housing and Transportation Cost Trade-offs and Burdens of Working Families in 28 Metros, 2006
This 2006 study by the Center for Neighborhood Technology examines neighborhood and transportation choices available to working families in 28 U.S. metropolitan areas.

Housing and Transportation Affordability Index, Center for Neighborhood Technology
This is an innovative tool that measures the true affordability of housing. Planners, lenders, and most consumers traditionally measure housing affordability as 30 percent or less of income. The Housing + Transportation Affordability Index, in contrast, takes into account not just the cost of housing, but also the intrinsic value of place, as quantified through transportation costs. The project models neighborhood-level data for 52 different metropolitan areas, including the Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton area, with results available through an interactive mapping website.

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